Welcome to our second week of “Rescue of the Week!” This week we are featuring Chelsea’s beautiful pup, Azu! Read on to learn more about this fantastic rescue.

Rescue of the Week: Azu!

Rescue’s Name: Azu (Azu Bean, Booboo, Beaners, Sweet Pea, Beanie Weanie, Azubaijan)
Species/Breed: She could be a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix, maybe Boxer/Labrador, possibly some Redbone Coonhound in there… Who knows! Whatever her particular cocktail of breeds is, it’s perfect.
Age: About 5 years old.

How did your rescue come to be in your life?
Nick and I had been planning to get dogs for years. Of course we couldn’t have any when we were at university, and doubly so when we lived in Japan. When we returned to the States in 2007, we promised ourselves that, as soon as we had steady income and a dog-friendly apartment, we would take a trip to the Humane Society. And that’s what we did on December 1, 2007! I think Azu was the second or third dog we met, and we fell completely in love with her. Thinking back, it was odd that she wasn’t scared of Nick, since one of her main fears for the first couple years was men. She was especially terrified of hats! And loud noises, traffic, skateboards… basically everything. It’s hard to believe that now, though; after a lot of hard work and training, she’s gotten over all of her fears! She’s still the slightest bit wary around certain strangers, but who can blame her, really? Anyway, back to her adoption! She had apparently been picked up as a stray in Kansas and transferred to the Boulder, CO Humane Society. She had obviously been cared for at some point, though, because she knew “sit”, “shake”, and “down”. She even settled into our routine quickly.

Tell us more about your rescue kid:
Azu is the epitome of “dog”. She’s energetic but loves to lie around and snuggle. She’s sturdy and tough, but is very sensitive to the emotions of those around her. She’s clever and good at problem-solving, but still defers to us when she knows she’s out of her depth. She’s expressive and affectionate, but doesn’t jump all over you for attention. She’s far more subtle than that. She just has to look at you, and you suddenly find yourself lavishing her with affection! Some of Azu’s favorite things to do are, in no particular order: – Chasing tennis balls – Eating… just about anything – Fishing, though she’s only ever caught one bluegill – Resting her soft, warm neck on you when you’ve already been hitting your snooze for 20 minutes, and Azu that really is not helping me wake up, you know. – Hiking – Doing tricks – Giving hugs and kisses – Visiting The Place Where Biscuits Live (the bank) – Carrying toys around in her mouth. She even holds them in her sleep. We are honestly so lucky to have Azu. I’ve never met a dog more loving, and snuggly, and just… perfect than her. She makes us laugh and smile countless times every day. Your Name: Chelsea Conlin and Nick Tausek.

Where can you and your pet be found on the internet?
I think most ILRA regulars know where to find me! Paper Nautilus, my sketchblog, twitter, and deviantArt. Nick can be found on his website and twitter. Azu has been featured on Project DOG!

Let’s Hear Your Story!

Interested in telling your rescue’s story? Head over to our Rescue of the Week page and fill out the form. We look forward to hearing from you!

Filed under: Personal Stories, Rescue of the Week on September 20th, 2010 | 4 Comments »

Hey all! As promised, the very first in a new series here at ILRA: Rescue of the Week! Want to know something funny? This was pretty much supposed to be the whole point of ILRA. It all began as a simple idea to celebrate rescued animals to show that they are just as good as any other animals. In fact, we believe they know how lucky they are and return the love you give them tenfold! We wanted rescue parents to be able to come together and celebrate the wonderful animals that have changed their lives. We hope that you will all join in and share your rescue kids with the rest of the world! Now on to the first ever Rescue of the Week; who better but our very own mascot, Spunky?

Rescue of the Week: SPUNKY!

Rescue’s Name: Spunky (Spunkadoo, Spunkaruffugus)
Species/Breed: Husky/Shepherd/Chow mixed breed dog
Age: 6.5 years

How did your rescue come to be in your life?:
Spunky came into my life my sophomore year of college. I was working an adoption fair trying to get local pound dogs adopted. Spunky was my charge and I fell in love with him right away. An application was filled out before the event was even over! Since then, Spunky and I have been practically inseparable.

Tell us more about your rescue kid:
Spunky has amazing resilience. He has been through three different households, moved all around the country and been an amazing big brother to over thirty siblings. Nikki calls him the rock of our family and I’m inclined to believe her. No matter what, Spunky is always there. Whether it’s tolerating a little kitten thinking he’s mommy, playing gently with the ferrets or being a model for the younger dogs to follow, he is always a patient, loving presence. This wonderful personality makes him pretty irresistible to everyone he meets. Seriously, ask anyone! Because of this, he has his Canine Good Citizen (CGC) certificication and he is in the works of becoming a therapy dog! Hopefully someday soon, he will be able to bring joy and happiness to even more people who are in need of his soft soul. Spunky’s favorite thing to do in the whole world, besides getting love of course, is to run. He is one of the fastest, most agile dogs I’ve ever come across and he loves that he’s always the leader in a game of chase. On the other hand, he can also lounge around like nobody’s business and makes a great partner for sleeping in late. He is also an incredibly photogenic boy (as you can see). Spunky makes an amazing mascot for ILRA because he was the one that really inspired the creation of our site.

Your Name(s): Ashley & Nikki
Where can you and your pet be found on the internet?: Right here! Spunky, as many of you already know, is the mascot of ILRA. He’s so glad he found his forever home that he wants to pay it forward and help other animals in need. You can learn tidbits about him on our twitter account, @RescueAnimals, too. He also has a Dogster profile. But if you really want to get to know him, you’ve got to check out The Family Menagerie, a webcomic based on our crazy, animal filled lives. You’re sure to love it!

Check back next week for another Rescue of the Week!

Filed under: Personal Stories, Rescue of the Week on September 13th, 2010 | 8 Comments »

Already? Yes! It’s another installment of

The Truth Behind TFM: Fluff-Bucket!

Fluff-Bucket

This week, we are giving you an inside look on our youngest pup’s childhood. Considering he’s only a year and a half, this wasn’t that long ago. ^_~ You see, Snarf, well he suffered from that horrible habit that most puppies have: he chewed. He chewed on socks. He chewed on stuffed animals. He chewed on shoes, on wires, on plastic bottles, he chewed on anything he could get his teeth on. And that brings us to the most recent The Family Menagerie comic.

Alright, so sometimes we may indulge a little in the comics, but this isn’t that far off. There have been a few chewing incidents that have left shreds of tissue throughout the bathroom and all over the kitchen. Cottonballs in the hallway. Shirt scraps under the couch, a jacket in the kennel full of holes. Pieces of cardboard ripped into millions of tiny pieces all over the bedroom. It happens. Fortunately, he hasn’t had a die-hard urge to chew in awhile and this is something we feel he’s finally grown out of.

Thank goodness.

Filed under: Art, Personal Stories, The Family Menagerie on July 16th, 2010 | No Comments »

Hey everyone! I’d like to introduce yet another series here at ILRA: The Truth Behind The Family Menagerie. For those that don’t know, The Family Menagerie is a webcomic based on mine and Nikki’s crazy life with all our kids, both furry and scaly. It’s sure to include humorous situations that any animal lover can relate to and we hope it will continue to grow. Be sure to check it out – you won’t be disappointed!

Rescue Rattery

This weeks TFM is entitled “Rescue Rattery” and, believe it or not, there is no exaggeration in this comic at all! A couple months after we moved to Austin, while a friend was visiting, we went and picked Nikki up from work to eat lunch with her. After lunch, we stopped by a pet store called Zookeeper to check out the cool reptiles they have there. Nikki loves snakes of all kinds and I’m particularly fond of leopard geckos and bearded dragons. We very seriously told ourselves before walking in that we were “JUST LOOKING” since we already had so many kids.

Of course, it being an exotics store, they also have mice and rats there to be sold as reptile food. It always makes us feel sad so we went to look at the baby rats. We bent down at a tank that was crawling with baby fancy rats and watched them play and tumble. We couldn’t stand the thought of them becoming food. A store associate came over and asked us if we wanted to see them. Against our better judgment, we said yes. Seriously, if you’ve ever seen a baby rat, you’ll know why we couldn’t resist. He opened the tank and we started pulling different babies out to play with them. The guy played with them too and as I watched him I said “He loves these babies too much, there’s no way he’d sell them as snake food.” At that, the guy jumped up and disappeared into the back. Nikki picked up an older boy rat who looked Himalayan and as she was playing with him, the man returned and set another older boy rat on her shoulder, this one brown. He told her he was going to be sold as snake food. I could see the thought in Nikki’s eyes and the man must have seen it too because he dashed off to the back again and returned with yet another boy rat, this one a Himalayan just like the first.

As he explained their story to us, we knew what we had to do. These three had been raised as pet rats, meaning they had been played with since they were young so they wouldn’t be hand shy. But they had never been bought and so the owner of the store had put them back with the feeder rats since they were “too old”. The employee who had helped raise them had kept sneaking them back up to the front, hoping they would be saved. I guess we were the bleeding hearts he’d been looking for and we knew that we couldn’t allow these sweet babies, raised to be companions, to become food simply because they were bigger and older than the babies. We couldn’t save just one either, so we took all three. The guy was so happy and told us that they liked to play “Tickle Butt”, where you chase them around with your hand and then tickle them and that if we “put them in a room with a disco ball and play some Diana Ross and they’ll be just FABULOUS!” Hehe. It was meant to be.

The friend who was visiting wanted a baby rat so she chose one from the tank, a pretty little fawn girl. Since we didn’t want her to be alone, Nikki & I ended up picking a gray hooded girl to keep her company. We named the brown boy TumTum, the twin Himalayans Toodles and Twinby, the fawn girl Artemis and the gray girl Athena. And that, my friends, is how on one lunch break, we ended up welcoming 5 more kids into our family! We wouldn’t change that day for the world!

Filed under: Art, Personal Stories, The Family Menagerie on July 9th, 2010 | 5 Comments »

What follows is Part 2 of our BlogPaws adventures. This whole week will be a post a day about the sessions we went to, the people we met, the wonderful and inspiring feelings we took back with us from this conference. If you didn’t know, BlogPaws was a conference held in Columbus, Ohio this past weekend that brought together pet bloggers and animal advocates from all over the world. It was truly a life-changing conference.

Hey everyone! For those of you who attended BlogPaws, you know how hard it is to even begin to describe how amazing the conference was. For those of you who couldn’t make it this year, you NEED to go next year. It truly was a life changing experience for so many of those involved. You can’t imagine how energizing & inspiring & truly awesome the experience was! I know that there were so many incredible connections made and that there are months worth of stories to be told. This is one of ours and probably one of the most heartwarming of my entire life. This story is one that still makes me smile from ear to ear and makes Nikki tear up. I think it is one that perfectly describes the heart & soul of what BlogPaws is – animal lovers coming together to build an intentional community that will very truly change the lives of animals for the better! Keep in mind that Jo, Nikki & I met only about 10 minutes prior to this occurring! Without further ado, I give you our very own Nikki and Jo of EnlightenedFerret.com (@informedferret on twitter) with an awesome announcement:

Filed under: BlogPaws, Causes, Donations, Interview, Personal Stories, Videos on April 13th, 2010 | 9 Comments »